Portugal Wins, Sweden Loses in Europe's Vehicle CO2 Rankings

In the last few years, Europe as a whole has made a variety of efforts to reduce carbon emissions, by encouraging use electric and hybrid vehicles as well as of alternative modes of transportation. But despite the group effort, some countries are far ahead of others. Presented last month and reported by Le Figaro, the results of a study looking at carbon emissions per vehicle by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) show Portugal leading the pack, with France and Denmark just behind. Last place goes to Sweden, closely followed by Germany.The study, which only examined Western Europe (minus Norway and Switzerland) ranked each country on the average number of grams of CO2 emitted per kilometer. The results ranged from 129g (Portugal) to 153g (Sweden) with most falling in the 130s (see the map of results here).

But despite the disparity of scores, the ADEME study produced encouraging results. The average emission rate for European vehicles has fallen by 45 grams/kilometer in the last 15 years, and by 20 grams in the last five. That means the continent is on its way to achieving its goal of 95g/km by 2020, though it still has plenty of work to do. It just needs Germany and Sweden to catch up.

In the last few years, Europe as a whole has made a variety of efforts to reduce carbon emissions, by encouraging use electric and hybrid vehicles as well as of alternative modes of transportation. But